RUN DAISY RUN: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Marathon 26.2 Miles

2 DOWN 48 TO GO

November 21, 2011

26.2 Miles

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania was my next race destination and when I signed up my plan was to do a half marathon 13.1 miles , but the race was filled to capacity so after a couple of days of thinking about it and convincing two of my friends (Alexandra and Enrique)we decided to sign up for the full marathon 26.2 miles. I figured we were already experienced running for a couple of years that was the logical next step. Although we were planning on our first marathon to be NYC for 2012 we went into Philly with the mindset of this will be our prep race for NYC with only 10 weeks of training.

TRAINING

Week one I figured out a training plan that I downloaded online and made modifications according to days we can run and the limited amount of time to get us to 20miles which is what they say a beginner marathon runner should aim for when training for the race. My 10 week training consisted of 3-4 days a week of running with cross training of weight training, spinning, and boxing. My long runs landed on a Sunday where I would meet my friends Alexandra and Enrique and we had a goal to run a certain amount of miles, we tracked the miles by using my watch the GARMIN 305, don’t know why I went so long without this watch it tracks, mileage, pace, heart rate and time. Our training runs mostly consisted of running in Central Park you get the mileage in and hill training as well. We made the attempt one day to run the west side highway but it was too crowded. After most of our long training runs we would go have brunch at Lansky’s Diner in the 70s on the west side among other places, that was our favorite part after a long run, FOOD!!!

After 10weeks of aggressive training, lots of carb loading the last week, I was anxious and nervous for my first marathon; my friends kept calling me crazy for convincing them to do it.

DAY BEFORE THE RACE

Saturday November 20 Enrique , Alex and I met up on 34st to take the Mega Bus to Philly it was a nice fun quick ride and we went straight to race expo to pick up our race packet and goodies although not too many freebies at this expo. I ended up buying a few things an ornament which I decided to start collecting in each place I visit and a short sleeve race shirt because the weather was going to be pretty warm on race day and I had planned to wear a long sleeve shirt. After the Expo we met up with my friend Lane and we headed to the Sheraton hotel in downtown Philadelphia, we unpacked set up our race shirts, sneakers and everything we will be using the day of the race. We discussed going to dinner and we decided on a family style Italian place where we had really good fresh rolls and penne with lemon chicken. Everyone decided to relax and watch a bit of TV and decided to hit the bed by 10:30, I guess with all the excitement and nerves none of us really got any sleep, we had about 3 alarms also set at different times and I think we got about 5hrs sleep the most.

RACE DAY

Everyone was excited we went to buy our bagels and had our protein bars. As we left the hotel at 6:15am we walked to start line and took several porta potty breaks I guess the nerves got to me that we had to rush to start line because we had to wait on line for the pottys. As the race started at 7:00 am I already trashed one layer that I was wearing and off we went. I felt good and strong throughout the race well except for the ache in my knee that started several days before but after the first half I felt good. I paced myself according to my watch and I was where I wanted to be was focused and in tune with my music and stride it wasn’t till after miles 17 I was feeling a bit distracted and was trying to gain my focus back didn’t help that I stopped again to use porta potty but I did hold it for 15miles haha. Mile 19 was close to where people hit that “infamous wall” and all you see was people handing out beer, what are you NUTS I can’t drink beer while I’m running, well I hate beer to begin with. Mile 23-24 I was feeling a little out of it, had to pour water on my head to wake me up, I remember hearing people on the sidelines saying “Come on Daisy, you can do it, great job” or “Almost there Daisy”. My name was on my bib #. A lot of people say the last 6miles of a marathon is all mental I felt for me in my state of mind it was all heart how bad did I want to finish, I even saw people walking or collapsed and I was still running which was good. I finished my first full marathon in 4hours and 28minutes what an awesome feeling crossing that finish line. As I crossed finish line received my medal continued walking and collected all the goodies they give you post race (fruit, chicken broth, pretzels, Gatorade, water) post race fuel is just as important as pre race fuel. There was a salsa band at the end I so wanted to dance but legs weren’t having it, did a few shimmys with my upper body and I was done lol

Calm before the storm

On line for the porta potty lol

Mile 6 or 7

POST RACE

After the race we headed back to the hotel to quickly shower, stretch and pack to check out and go eat. We also had a celebratory champagne toast which was really nice. We walked to a diner and had brunch, afterwards we went to see the Rocky Steps and statue because I wanted to run up the stairs and have my victory run and so I did ran half way up the stairs and took a picture with Alex and Rocky Statue. Another thing I wanted to do was try a Philly Cheesesteak minus the whiz (I know I know, not the authentic way if there isn’t whiz) so we headed to Geno’s and it was pretty good, I say pretty good because it was a little over rated for me maybe because I went nontraditional and went with provolone cheese. After all the running around Lane drove all of us home, which was really nice of him and we had a nice little road trip back home.